Ezekiel and the Leaders of Israel.

• Author: GREENBERG, MOSHE
• Position: Review

Ezekiel and the Leaders of Israel. By IAIN M. DUGUID. Supplements to Vetus Testamentum, vol. 56. Leiden: E. J. BRILL, 1994. Pp. xi + 164.$57.25.

In this revision of a Cambridge doctoral thesis, Duguid contends that the Book of Ezekiel presents a coherent, uniform attitude toward the leadership groups of Judahite society: the court, the clerics, the prophets, and other ruling classes (namely, "elders" and "officials"). Those blamed most vehemently for Judah's fall are to be deprived of status in the restored kingdom, white the blameless are given positions of honor.

Duguid collects and analyzes the data under the rubric of each group. His argument is sober and sticks to the sense of the text. He does not produce any new information, but arranges what is given in the Book from a fresh angle. His judgments are conservative; typical is his careful examination of Hartmut Gese's conjectural "nasi? stratum" in chapters 40-48, concluding that it is a "myth": see H. Gese, Der Verfassungsentwurf des Ezechiel (Kap. 40-48), Beitrage zur Historischen Theologie, 25 (Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck], 1957), 85-87. Nor is he persuaded that the preferred title nasi. "chief," for the future ruler of restored Israel is meant to deny him royal status. He notes how minor a part is assigned to the priests in the tale of past sin, and the effect thereof on their future role. And he points to the gaps in our knowledge of the history of the priesthood during the late monarchy that frustrate attempts to grasp...